A Hunter, Hunted #2
The anger, fear, and frustration are easy to understand. After all, I disobeyed his orders. There’s something else there, too, but it’s gone before I can identify it.
Hedran turns his head towards me, still pressing his forearm against Gabriel’s throat, and he looks me over. His perusal makes me feel dirty, and I resist the urge to draw my arms around myself and cower.
“There you are,” Hedran says. “I knew you’d be hiding around here somewhere.”
My fingers tremble around the dagger. The weapon feels so insignificant in the face of this awful man.
“Let him go,” I say as forcefully as I can manage. The tremor in my hands isn’t helping my cause.
“Or what?” the other Hunter sneers, looking at me as if I’m nothing more than an annoyance. This isn’t the first time I’ve been looked at like that, but something about this man makes it feel worse than normal. “You’re nothing but a frightened little gods-blessed.”
Malice shines in his eyes, and it’s like I’m looking at evil incarnate.
My tongue ties in knots. “I’ll . . . I’ll . . .”
“I’ve hunted your kind many times before. What are you going to do, fall to those pretty knees and pray me to death?” He scoffs. “Go ahead, give it a try. I can think of other things for you to do while you’re down there.”
His lurid gaze travels down my body, leaving no room for misinterpretation. Gods above, why is that the direction men always go in with their insults? Can’t they ever think of something better?
Hedran’s words don’t have the intended effect. Rather than instilling me with debilitating fear, anger froths in my veins. Churning hotter and hotter, it spurs me on.
I inhale deeply, the fingers of my free hand finding the sun dangling from Amelia’s bracelet, and I draw strength from it.
Even if I still believed that Esyn, the Mother Goddess, cared about the gods-blessed and the land she created—and let’s be fucking clear, I don’t think she cares about us at all, even if she’s real—there’s no way I’d waste a breath praying for this man.
“Go, Wren,” Gabriel says, his voice raspy and barely there. “Take Chaos and run. Head for the mountains. You can—”
Hedran must have added pressure against Gabriel’s throat, because his words end in a strangled cough.
“Shut the fuck up, you bastard.” He digs the tip of his sword into my Hunter’s chest, red darkening the fabric.
My vision narrows in on it until it’s all I can see. My thoughts are consumed by it.
How dare he?
It was one thing for me to hate Gabriel—I had plenty of reasons for doing so. It’s another thing for this horrible man to treat him like this. To try to kill him.
That anger bubbles and boils, turning into something deeper. Darker. I’m vaguely aware that my Mark is scorching and my skin is taking on a blue sheen in the peripheral of my vision.
“What the fuck?” Hedran curses as blue sparks fill the space between us.
“He asked you to leave us alone.” My voice is deeper than it has ever been, and there’s a swirling mass of emotion inside me. I’ve never felt like this—not even on the night of the ball.
I step towards Hedran, and embers jump between us. His face pales, and he stares at me, loosening his grip on Gabriel’s throat. “You . . . You’re not supposed to have . . . Argh.”
A gurgling sound comes from Hedran’s throat, and his eyes drop to his chest where a dagger is embedded in his heart.
“You should’ve left when I gave you the chance,” Gabriel rasps, his hand wrapped around the hilt. “You brought this on yourself.”
He twists the blade. The other Hunter cries out, and his knees tremble. Gabriel stares at Hedran as he yanks out the dagger.
Blood pours from the wound, and my heart constricts at the sight.
There’s a moment where nothing happens, a beat of utter silence, and then Hedran collapses, his sword falling to his side. He lands on his back, and his breaths are broken, staggered gasps. Gabriel crouches beside him, angling the dagger towards the other man’s chest.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” he says, almost mournfully.
“The king . . . wants . . . her,” Hedran chokes out, blood trickling from his mouth. His eyes rise and meet mine. “Everyone is . . . looking for her.”
“As long as my lungs draw breath, I will never allow that to happen,” Gabriel says solemnly.
Hedran takes in a stuttering breath, and a pained noise leaves him.
His hand crawls towards the sword at his side, but Gabriel kicks it away.
Hedran lets out a moan, a terrible sound that will forever haunt me.
Even though Hedran wanted to hurt me and kill Gabriel, he’s still a person. And this is . . . awful.
“I’m sorry,” Gabriel says.
And then, despite his own injuries, he drives the blade back into Hedran’s heart. The healer in me screams, but the rational part of me recognizes that this only happened because the man wouldn’t leave.
Hunter Erlet convulses twice, and then he stops. His eyes are wide, and his mouth is gaping.
The entire forest comes to a standstill—not even the wind blows. Everything is silent until a wolf’s howl fills the night. The mournful sound stretches on and on, and goosebumps erupt on my flesh in its wake.
Padding paws come from my left. The wolf and Mist had been entangled nearby, but now they both approach. Mist stays back, her tail low and ears pressed against her head, but the wolf draws near. Up close, it’s even bigger than I originally thought.
My Mark is still burning, but the creature seems only to have eyes for its fallen master.
It sniffs Hedran’s body, licking his cheek before sitting back on its haunches.
Raising its snout to the sky, the grey beast lets out a bone-chilling melancholic howl.
As if the Hunter were more than just its owner. As if they were deeply connected.
Thrice, the wolf howls. Each is deeper and more unsettling than the last. By the third, my forehead has cooled.
There is no doubt about it, Hedran is well and truly dead.
Another canine cry rents the air, and then the wolf looks at Gabriel and growls. The menacing sound echoes through the night, and I suck in a breath. Gabriel is staring back at the wolf, a vein pulsing in his jaw. Several beats pass, and it’s almost as if they’re wordlessly communicating.
The wolf turns and bolts into the forest. There’s another howl, and then silence falls upon us once more. It’s gone, and Hedran is dead, which leaves me and Gabriel.
Alone.
And that . . .
That doesn’t bother me.
I shift my attention back to Gabriel. “You killed him.” The words are a hushed whisper.
He peers up at me, a frown tugging at his lips. “I did.”
I look at the body—another dead body, another person who has lost their life around me—then back to Gabriel.
“A Hunter. You killed another Hunter.” It appears I’m stuck on this point.
“Yes.” Gabriel’s gaze is unwavering as he wipes the dagger on the ground, cleaning it. “I did.”
He rips off a piece of his tunic, wrapping it around his arm and tying it with his teeth before he slowly rises to his feet. Slides his weapon into its sheath. Steps towards me.
I lick my lips, staring into the green eyes that have haunted me from the very first moment they locked on to mine. “Why did you do it, Gabriel?”
Why put himself at risk like that, for me?
Everyone knows there’s a code among the king’s soldiers. A brotherhood, of sorts. One does not simply go and kill their fellow soldier without repercussions.
And yet, he did just that.
Now the Hunter will be hunted, like me.
He steps over the body, extending a hand towards me. At first, I think he’s going to lace his fingers through mine, but then he pries my dagger out of my trembling hand. Our fingers graze, the touch fleeting, but those familiar sparks race through me.
I inhale sharply, taking a few steps back.
Gabriel follows suit. He’s so close, but I don’t tell him to get away. I can’t. I’m as captivated by his presence as the day we first met. More, in fact.
Now I know who he is. What he is. And the fact that he threw it all away for me . . .
I need him. The thought shoves all others aside, and for once, I’m not afraid of what it means.
I need him.
My brows lower, and my lips part. My pulse races as I sway closer to Gabriel, unable to stay away.
His eyes sweep over mine, and his warm breath skates over my lips.
Any closer, and we’d be sharing air. We’re not touching, not yet, but my body feels like it’s burning from the sparks flying between us.
Gabriel whispers, answering the question I almost forgot I asked, “You know why, Wren.”
And I’m not sure if it’s the way he says my name, the way his eyes darken as he looks at me, or the fact that he turned on his vows for me, but I can no longer remember why this is a bad idea. Why I should stay away from him.
Gabriel killed for me, again, and he painted a target on his back to defend me. No one has ever done anything like that for me.
Yes, he hunted me, but also he saved me and my sisters. And I’m tired of fighting against this pull deep inside me, the one insisting he’s mine.
I don’t want to keep my distance any longer. I lift my head and tip forward, closing the space between us. I need a taste, so, I kiss him.